Study: Women are better at parking cars than men

A British study finds that women have more skill behind the wheel when it comes to parking cars. (Shutterstock / AXL)

Men love to think that they’re better than women at parking cars—in fact, my own husband enjoys shouting out instructions when I’m pulling our VW Jetta wagon into a space. But it turns out this long-held popular belief just might not be true.

Britain’s largest car park operator, NCP, put together a month-long experiment to determine whether men or women are more skilled at parking cars, and they found that women take home the prize.

Women might take longer to park the car, but they’re better at finding a space, aligning their vehicles to fit in the space, and once they’re parked their cars are positioned centrally within the space, according to the Daily Mail.

The study looked at 2,500 drivers, who were observed through surveillance cameras and rated on various aspects of parking and given a mark out of 20. The final scores were close, but women came out ahead with an average score of 13.4 and men with a score of 12.3.

Men did especially well when it came to speed. It took an average of 16 seconds to park for men, while the average for women was 21 seconds. Researchers also noticed that men were quick to impress. If a female was sitting shotgun, a male usually chose to park in a tighter, smaller space that allowed him to show off his parking skills.

Women were more patient and drove much slower than men when looking for a space and researchers think this allows them to more quickly locate spaces in a full garage.

A few other findings:

Nearly 40 percent of women chose to to reverse into a space—the method recommended by driving instructors—compared with 28 percent of men.

Men were much happier with their parking job once they got into a space and were less likely to reposition the car for a more perfect alignment. Only 29 percent of men re-aligned the car, compared to 56 percent of women.

Women were more likely to park in the center of the space, with 53 percent of women parking centrally, compared to 25 percent of men.

Neil Beeson, a senior driving instructor on ITV’s Last Chance Driving School, devised the study for NCP. “I was quite surprised by the results, because in my experience men have always been the best learners and usually performed better in lessons,” Beeson told the Daily Mail. “However, it’s possible that women have retained the information better. The results also appear to dispel the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women.”

What do you think? Are men or women better behind the wheel when it comes to parking?